Skin disease outbreak in Chiradzulu

Chiradzulu District Hospital says it will deploy its medical team to investigate a possible outbreak of skin disease among learners at St Michaels Primary School in the district.

Spokesperson for the hospital Owen Chataika said his office will deploy a team of skin experts to assess the situation on the ground.

“Though our office is yet to get a report on the alleged skin disease outbreak, we are deploying experts to investigate. The team will comprise an outreach clinic so that we halt the problem,” said Chataika.

But observations by The Nation last Friday during the donation of school materials by Children’s Hope Foundation, revealed that a number of learners have a skin disease that looked like scabies.

Both the deputy headteacher, Agness Chiwaya, and executive director of Children’s Hope Foundation, Jew Chapomba, confirmed the cases of the strange skin disease.

“It is true that we have observed that a number of learners have developed a skin disease that we hardly know. But we are calling for medical personnel to come and assess what this could be,” said Chiwaya.

On his part, Chapomba said some of the pupils affected by the disease are beneficiaries of his Keeping Children in School campaign called Tiwaveke Nsapato.

“This could be scabies or malnutrition outbreak, but we need immediate intervention before the situation gets out of hand,” said Chapomba.